Rose Red

iTheatre rewinds to Red Scare-era Brooklyn

Comments (0) By Robrt L. Pela Thursday, Sep 10 2009

The Wallachs have a problem. The fact that their teenaged daughter, Rose, is rebelling is certainly no surprise; what teenager doesn’t? But her parents are Marxists who have devoted themselves to opposing McCarthyism, anti-Semitism, and the exploitation of the working class with equal zeal. But Rose finds her parents’ ideologies oppressive and slightly dangerous, and positions her youthful rebellion not around a desire to wear shorter skirts or break her curfew, but rather around politics and philosophy.

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Set in Brooklyn in the 1950s, Jules Feiffer’s A Bad Friend is a heady drama that’s very likely a roman a clef. Feiffer grew up in lefty Brooklyn Heights, and was discharged from the Army in 1953, returning home to discover that his sister had joined the Communist Party. From such things plays are made. This one, presented by iTheatre Collaborative, takes a fresh look at an oft-visited subject, with cultural references to Clifford Odets, Dr. Seuss, and The Daily Worker, which help define not only Feiffer’s issues, but an entire transitional era of our recent past.

Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 12, 8 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 13, 2 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 17, 8 p.m.; Fri., Sept. 18, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 19, 8 p.m.; Fri., Sept. 25, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 26, 8 p.m., 2009